After my disastrous radio repair from yesterday (parts are ordered), I needed something to cheer me up, so I did the carburetor of my 6 cylinder Bel Air today.
You might have read about my engine rebuild many moons ago. The car has been registered, insured and inspected for a year now, but I haven’t driven it once ever since.
The first shakedowns last year with the car showed some major flaws that were still there. Namely a rough idle, a fuel leak from the carburetor onto the manifold, quite a lot of steering play, and a wonky transmission linkage. Still got inspection.
The main issue really is the transmission linkage. When going out of third, the gear stays engaged. So you have to stop with the clutch depressed, shut down the engine, and get the gear out manually from the engine bay.
For the steering, I used all of the possible adjustment, and it’s now drivable.
I recently found out that the fix for the transmission is quite easy for that. Just unscrew 2 bolts, turn an adjustment sleeve, and tighten everything up. So I will try this in the very near future.
And then there’s the hardest of the bunch, at least the one that scared me most, since I’ve never touched a carburetor before.
I’ve had the rebuild kit laying around for quite some time, and I finally found the time and courage to do it.
Taking the carb appart revealed a lot of dust which I guess comes from the car’s time in Turkey. I cleaned everything thoroughly with paint thinner and a brush.
I then put everything back together as it was. I had to use a few of the old parts, since those generic kits are never perfect, but all the things I reused were in good working condition.
Back in the car, I was quite nervous if the car would run at all. Since I didn’t fill the carburetor with petrol, it took a few turns for the fuel to arrive. But then, perfect startup, a little high but smooth idle. Oh, and no more fire hazard, which is nice.
This project might come to an end after all